The COVID-19 pandemic has given many workers, especially those working remotely for the first time in their careers, a chance to look at their lives from a fresh perspective in what some are calling the “Great Reassessment.” For Rubicon Career Advisor John Cunningham, he saw an opportunity for growth.

“Working from home and the pandemic had me rethinking what I was going to do with all of this time I was going to have,” Cunningham said. “I saw the 8 minute and 46 second video of George Floyd, and I felt kind of helpless because I saw that being myself or one of my children. And I just kept hearing all of this rhetoric around how these types of things continue to happen and have historically been a part of the narrative between policing and black men and women and people of color in general in America, and I was like, ‘Man, I need to do something, I can’t just sit here and not do anything.’”

After consulting with people in his network, Cunningham received a recommendation from Pat Mims, Director of the Reentry Success Center, to connect with Project Rebound. Their support led Cunningham to enroll in a summer math camp, where he was the only student from the initial cohort who stayed through the entire series of classes.

The experience added to his desire to learn more. “I think it really showed me that I had the ability to accomplish things in an educational setting that I had never accomplished before, and it gave me a lot of confidence,” Cunningham said. “So I decided to give it a shot and go for a degree.”

Cunningham enrolled in classes at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and immediately began looking for ways to apply his learning outside of the classroom. He participated in the SFSU President’s Leadership Fellows Program, where he enhanced and added to the job-readiness skills he uses to support Rubicon participants in his role as a Career Advisor. He then set his sights on the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellowship. After a rigorous application and selection process, he was selected to participate as one of ten fellows for the Fall 2021 semester.

“I was interested in continuing the work I do with Rubicon, but expanding that into an understanding of how legislation and policies are created,” Cunningham said. “Seeing the whole process from beginning to end, reading these reports and seeing these recommendations and how they put all of this together to make legislation out of it—that’s the part that’s beneficial to me. It takes me out of the hands on and gives me a behind-the-veil experience on how government comes to some of the decisions that they come to.”

As a Willie L. Brown, Jr. Fellow, Cunningham works directly in government as an intern for Shamann Walton, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Cunningham participates in three primary focus areas in this role: closure of the San Francisco juvenile hall, a project that will be finalized in December; the African American Reparations Advisory Committee, a group created by the Board of Supervisors that is assessing what reparations could look like for the city; and the Racial Equity Task Force, which looks at spaces in the city to ensure that people are treated equitably.

For Cunningham, the opportunity to create systemic change is one that he encourages others to join in. “Being formerly incarcerated myself, I love to see those systems of oppression dismantled and destroyed,” Cunningham said. “The one thing I would tell people is that they always have a section in every open meeting to the public where you can make comments. So many people do not take advantage to express their disagreement or support for whatever these committees are doing. The people who are going to be affected by the decisions do have a voice in the process, but we don’t take advantage of it.”

After his fellowship ends next month, Cunningham is looking forward to pursuing his degree in Race and Resistance Studies from SFSU while continuing his work with Rubicon. “Honestly, the degree is great,” Cunningham said. “But as I was going through the first semester, I realized that the degree—the piece of paper—was not really that important to me. Obtaining the knowledge and allowing me to network and be in spaces where I would be effective is what matters.”